Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : The role of the driving field frequency f d of a cool atmospheric plasma (CAP) is investigated for values around using a two-dimensional fluid numerical model applied to a parallel plate configuration. It is found that keeping the voltage constant the current amplitude roughly scales with ; a tendency that can be understood using a RC circuit model of the plasma-sheath configuration. Moreover, it is seen that the electron density increases faster than the density of the excited species. This implies that plasma heating will increase relatively more than plasma reactivity so that the basic feature of the CAP, to be cool and reactive, will weaken for increasing f d-values. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd.